The invention relates to a process for the recovery of the principal mineral elements contained in saline waters, such as sea water, salt water concentrates and brines, together with most of the water, which is recovered as potable water.
Saline waters, particularly sea water, contain a wide variety of dissolved minerals and chemicals, the bulk of which are present in the form of ions. In sea water, for example, the major ion constituents are sodium, magnesium, calcium, potassium, chlorine, sulfate, bicarbonate, and bromine ions. For many years, processes have been developed and attempts have been made to recover the major mineral or chemical constituents from sea water and other saline waters. Extensive efforts have been made in this direction in the last ten to fifteen years due to the availability of large quantities of brine by-product solutions obtained from commercial sea water desalination plants. Heretofore, commercially viable processes have been limited to the recovery of only a few of these valuable constituents, have produced substantial, unusable wastes, and have fallen far short of extracting the majority of the water in the feed. Thus, there is a need for a practical and economic process for the recovery of a substantial percentage of the principal minerals and chemicals in saline water together with most of the water and for a recovery process which produces only relatively minor amounts of unusable wastes.